Tomra Sorting developed Sharp Eye because the percentage of thermoforms in PET bottle bales has been increasing. | Courtesy of Tomra.
PET thermoforms bring special baggage to the recycling process: Optical sorters often fail to differentiate them from bottles, and thermoform flakes are more prone to breaking into fines.
A pelletizing and melt delivery equipment company opened a lab in North Carolina, and a U.S. thermoforms company begins using sheets from resin made partly through a PET depolymerization process.
The resealable stand-up pouch pictured here can be recycled alongside 100% polyethylene films at stores. | Courtesy of The Kellogg Company.
A Kellogg’s brand has begun using a pouch with an additive that compatibalizes its EVOH barrier layer and PE film during recycling.
Kal-Polymers installed a customized line at its 110,000-square-foot Flowery Branch, Ga. plant. | Courtesy of Kal-Polymers
Kal-Polymers is spending up to $4 million to install an integrated processing line, which is boosting PP recycling capacity and allowing the firm to handle higher levels of contamination.
The FDA recently approved a recycling process that allows post-consumer HDPE at up to 100% in new products including milk and juice bottles. | Val Lawless/Shutterstock
Erema Group got the go-ahead to use its technology to recycle HDPE into food and drink packaging and foodservice wares. Meanwhile, other companies got federal green lights for PET recycling.
Three major manufacturers announce they’ll use PET, PP and acetate produced via chemical recycling processes, and Procter & Gamble begins putting digital barcodes on bottles to aid in sorting.
Holli Alexander of Eastman Chemical said collection unknowns are part of the current chemical recycling landscape. | Plastics Recycling Conference / Brian Adams Photography
When it comes to development and commercialization of chemical recycling technologies, interest is high. A chemical recycling workshop at last week’s Plastics Recycling Conference and Trade Show was sold out, with over 300 attendees.
Living Proof recently tested the recyclability of some of the company’s hair care product packaging.
The Association of Plastic Recyclers recently recognized the recyclability of three packaging innovations: a 100% plastic aerosol bottle, a tube with an EVOH barrier, and an HDPE bottle with copolymer coating.
The newly announced additives can improve various qualities of recycled plastics. | Mr_Mrs_Marcha/Shutterstock
Ampacet, ExxonMobil and other producers of additives that boost the quality of recycled plastics have made a number of announcements lately.
A recyclable Colgate-Palmolive tube undergoes recyclability testing in Europe, and a number of equipment innovations are up for awards.